


Repeat The Month of June Back-to-Back Like Eighty Times

by Cipher_Is_My_Waifu



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Death loop, Depictions of a 10-Year-Old Dying in Various Ways, Gen, Not Sure If They're Graphic Enough to Warrant an Archive Warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-06 07:42:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18383996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cipher_Is_My_Waifu/pseuds/Cipher_Is_My_Waifu
Summary: Max really, really hates Camp Campbell. All he wants is for this summer to be over and done with, so he can get out of this crappy vacation and back to his crappy regular existence. Unfortunately, summer doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. Or ever, at this rate.-----This isn't goodbye, it's see you later





	1. Chapter 1

The small, newly-formed party of campers chattered excitedly amongst themselves. They were going to head up the mountain of Sleepy Peak, on a real live quest for the Quartermaster, to defeat the evil forces within that threatened all of Camp Campbell!

“You coming too, Max?” Harrison asked, walking past the rest of the group and giving him a hopeful smile.

Max’s response was a bored and curt, “Still got those dice?”

“Yep!” the magician exclaimed, flourishing a handful of rice at the shorter boy. “Oh, darn it!”

Max sighed, rolling his eyes. “Well, since my craps has gone to crap, I guess I don’t have anything better to do.” Narrowed eyes glanced between Harrison and Nerris, and he quickly amended his agreement. “But if this turns into some kind of LARP thing, I’m gonna be pissed.”

###### 

Some hours later, the sun was well on its way past the horizon, the air was cooling, and the children were starting to realize they were well and truly -

“LOST, Nerris! We are lost, and it is ALL your fault!” Harrison shrieked, furiously stomping a foot into the dirt. Nerris stood toe to toe with him, hands on her hips and a heavy frown on her face.

“We are not!” she barked, stomping her own foot in turn. “My navigational spells have never let me down before, and they won’t now!”

Max groaned, dragging his hands down his face. Neil worriedly rubbed at an arm, and Nikki...Nikki...huh. Max blinked. Where had she gone?

“HEY GUYS!” The semi-feral girl’s voice carried through the woods, and the kids all turned in the direction it had come from. “C’MERE!”

The small party hurried through the brush, trying to catch up to where Nikki had disappeared to. The further they went, the more the night air felt like the hottest part of the day, and a strange bubbling sound reached their ears. Neil sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose. “What smells like rotten eggs?”

Max took a whiff, before coughing and waving a hand in front of his face. “Ugh, it’s like someone bottled all their farts for a year and then put it in a microwave!”

As they cleared the last of the trees, the air seemed to swim in front of them. Nikki was standing several feet ahead of them, cackling and throwing pine cones into…

“Holy shit.”

“Holy _shit_!”

“Oh my gosh!”

“By Merlin’s beard!”

Stretching out as far as they could see was the yawning mouth of Sleepy Peak. Red-hot lava bubbled and popped, a nearly unbearable heat emanating through the air. Nikki threw her last pine cone over the edge of the peak, then scrambled back over to her friends. “Look, you guys! _We found the volcano_!”

The kids slowly walked over to the edge of the volcano’s lip, gazing down into the magma. Max kicked a rock over the edge, watching as it hit the lava and sank below the surface. “Wow. This is actually kind of…” He stopped, tapping his chin and thinking for a moment. “No. Wait. This is actually super boring. Why did we come up here again?”

Harrison proudly stepped forward, hands on his hips. “So that _I_ can stop the dark forces within the mountain!”

Nerris snorted, shoving her way past Harrison. “You mean, so _I_ can stop the dark forces.” She dropped into a low stance, moving her hands in a slow circle in front of herself, muttering strange, foreign-sounding words under her breath. After a moment, she threw her hands forward with a cry. “DARK FORCES BEGONE!”

After a long moment of nothing happening, Harrison chuckled. “You see, _this_ is why I should have been the mage, _Nerris_ ,” he remarked, pushing her aside and ignoring her muttering about dice rolls and critical failures. He pulled a red handkerchief from his pocket. “Stand back and prepare to be dazzled, as I make the mountain...disappear!” Laying it down on a patch of rock, he waved a hand over the handkerchief with a flourish before snatching it back up with a proud “Tada!”

The mountain beneath remained fully and entirely unchanged. Nerris snorted again.

“Okay then,” Max said, jamming his hands into his hoodie pocket. “We found the volcano. Neither of you freaks are gonna stop these supposed ‘dark forces’. Can we go back to camp now?”

Neil wiped at his brow. “I gotta agree with Max on this one. It’s really hot up here, and this looks...dangerous. We should probably tell Gwen and David about this.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Gwen and David don’t need to know shit. So there’s a clearly active volcano within walking distance of camp! If we’re lucky, it’ll blow while we’re all asleep, and we won’t have to die as horrifically painful a death as we would otherwise.”

Nikki tilted her head to one side. “Wouldn’t the volcano exploding wake us all up, though?”

Nerris stomped a foot, fists balled at her sides. “We can’t go back now! I need to stop the dark forces! Let me try again!”

“No!” Harrison barked, taking a step towards her. “Let _me_ try again! _I’m_ the chosen one!”

Nerris took two large steps backwards, away from Harrison and towards the mouth of the volcano. “No you’re not, Harrison! Your party tricks won’t do anything against a Lawful Evil mountain! _I_ , however, specialize in Chaotic Good. That cancels out! What more sign could you need that _I_ am the chosen one?”

“Uh...guys?” Neil interjected, nervously raising one hand.

“Party tricks?!” Harrison shrieked, closing the gap between the two again. “How dare you!”

“Guys?”

Nerris stepped back again, glaring daggers at the taller boy. “Yes! _Your_ destiny, at best, is to entertain _children_ at _birthday parties_!”

Harrison howled, tackling Nerris to the ground. The two began to roll across the rock, pulling at each others’ hair.

“Guys, watch out!”

Neil’s third cry came seconds too late, as the brawling children reached the lip of the volcano and toppled over the ledge.

“ _Nerris! Harrison_!”

“Oh, _fuck_!”

The three remaining campers ran for the edge of the mountain, skidding to a halt inches away from falling themselves. Harrison dangled from the rock, desperately hanging on with both hands. Nerris clung to his legs, staring down at the lava in silent terror. “Help us!” Harrison screamed, arms shaking with exertion.

“Nikki, grab his right arm! I got his left! Neil, you grab both of us, and we all pull on three!” Max barked, quickly wrapping his hand around Harrison’s wrist and taking Neil’s hand with his other. “One! Two! _Three_!”

The kids dug in their heels, pulling as hard as they could. Slowly, the two magic kids reappeared over the rock, sweaty, frightened, and scrambling for solid ground.

Once they were clear of danger, both kids stood shakily to their feet and pulled the other three into a group hug. “Thank you!” Harrison cried, sounding just a little watery.

“You rolled a critical save!” Nerris added.

Max pushed them off with a roll of his eyes. “What, were we supposed to just let you die? I’d never hear the end of it from David if we came back without you guys!” He walked away from the group, peering down into the lava with a hidden, nervous gulp. “Besides, we wouldn’t have even _had_ to if you hadn’t been stupid enough to fight next to an _active volcano_.” He kicked another rock down into the crater and watched it sink.

Neil groaned. “Max, we _just_ had to save someone from falling down there. Get away from there, and let’s go back already!” Nikki nodded in agreement, nervously running her hands through a pigtail.

“Whatever,” Max muttered, turning away from the peak and starting to walk back towards the others.

Suddenly, the mountain started to shake below their feet. Max stumbled, tripped, and tipped backwards over the edge with a cry, falling towards the blisteringly hot lava below.

“ _MAX_!” the other four screamed in unison, gripping the ground as it rocked beneath them.

“I’m...I’m okay!” Max gasped. He had landed on a small, shaky-feeling ledge halfway down to the lava. He nervously wiped at the sweat on his brow, staring up to where the other campers had crawled to peer over the edge. “Anybody got some rope or something?”

Harrison sat up nervously, gazing down at Max. “I don’t think we brought anything like that, Max,” he called down. “But I can try a spell to bring you back to camp safely! Alakazoo!” he cried, waggling his fingers towards the trapped boy below.

Max closed his eyes and grit his teeth. “Harrison, this is not the _time_ for your stupid magic-” He cut himself off as the ledge he was perched on suddenly shifted, falling out from beneath him. This time, he wasn’t lucky enough to find another, and he hit the boiling lava with a firm sort of _thud_. His last coherent thought was that lava was surprisingly solid, before his mind went blank with pain and heat. He could hear the others screaming in horror as the lava bubbled around and into his skin, but all he could take in was just how horribly, awfully _hot_ it was, and that this was such a _stupid_ way to die -

###### 

Max woke up with a sudden jerk as the bus came to a grinding halt. A voice from the front called out, “Camp’s here,” and he blinked several times, patting himself down. That...it had just been a dream. A long, strangely detailed dream, but that was all. He must have just fallen asleep on the way to Camp Campbell.

He groaned to himself. “Of course, I have to live through half the summer in one bus ride before it even starts.” Shaking his head, he grabbed his backpack and started off the already empty bus. It figured his parents couldn’t even see him off on the right weekend. Everybody else had probably been there for at least a week, which was just going to put the spotlight right on him. “At least that David guy was just part of the dream,” he muttered as he stepped off the bus. “If I ever met somebody that happy for real, I think I might actually kill them.”

“Well, hey there, camper!”

Glancing up, Max’s face fell. The counselor waiting to greet him. It was _him_. The awful, peppy man from his dream. How..?

Looking around, Max realized he recognized _everything_ about this camp. The layout of the tents, the mess hall, the flag; hell, there was even a wild platypus hanging around the corner of the counselors’ cabin! His stomach flipped as he saw Nerris and Harrison arguing by the flagpole.

“What the shit is going on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my sister for always helping flesh out ideas for this, and for letting me steal the prompt back from her when she started to lose interest.
> 
> I'm currently midway through chapter 6, so expect weekly updates, and hopefully I'll keep my buffer long enough to keep that up until the end. Kudos are always appreciated, but comments are what really lights the fire under my ass to keep writing!


	2. Chapter 2

The next several days were... _stressful_ , to say the least, for Max. He recognized everyone before he even met them. He knew what activities were coming up, at least vaguely. He knew what tent he would be assigned, that he would be alone in it for the first week, and ( _luckily_ ) where to quickly and easily pilfer David’s coffee maker from. In his weird, prophetic dream-thing, it had taken a good week and a half to figure out how to get some caffeine in his system.

David was just as annoying as he had been in...whatever it was that had happened on the bus ride, and Max was desperate to escape from him, and the camp, entirely. It certainly didn’t help that he could see Sleepy Peak from just about anywhere on the grounds. Not that he was freaked out by the volcano, or anything. It was just _weird_ to have a summer camp so close to an active _volcano_.

(If he was secretly glad to be alone in his tent the first couple nights, waking in a cold sweat and remembering the sensation of _burning alive_ , well...that would just stay a secret, wouldn’t it.)

The following weekend, another bus came to camp, bearing the other two children he remembered from what he had decided to just call the strangest dream of his short life. When it pulled in, the Quartermaster left it unattended to go on a break, and Max saw his chance. He snuck onto the bus, threw a particularly large rock onto the gas pedal, and made a break for it.

The bus made it less than ten minutes down the road before smashing into a tree. Max screamed as he was hurled through the windshield and headfirst into the large pine, then -

He jerked awake, finding himself on the bus. Again. Arriving at camp. _Again_. Max felt his stomach drop. This could _not_ be good.

###### 

The first ( _third? This was getting confusing_.) night after arriving at camp, Max couldn’t sleep. He just lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling of the tent. He was far from stupid, and he’d seen enough TV to realize what had happened. Time loops were far from anything new in media, but this was real life. How the hell was this happening? He tried to remember the details of what had happened before he woke up on the bus the first time, but with over a week having passed, the details were getting a little blurry. He remembered going up Sleepy Peak with Nerris, Neil, Nikki and Harrison, finding the volcano, and falling into the lava. He remembered burning. He remembered heat, and pain; the worst pain he’d ever felt in his life; his skin _melting_ and _bubbling_ -

Stop. Deep breath. **Repress**.

He stared at the ceiling. What else. What else, what else, what else had happened. Had anyone said anything? _Done_ anything? Harrison had tried to cast some kind of spell, but his shit was generally pretty hit or miss. Who was to say whether or not he had anything to do with this at all? Fuck if Max knew, but...it was his best lead right now, so he guessed he should probably try talking to Harrison tomorrow. Right now, all he could do was try to get some sleep. By his estimate, it had to be a solid half past four. That gave him, at best, about three hours until David and Gwen would be waking everyone up for breakfast. Max groaned and shoved his face into his pillow. In the wake of realizing just what was happening, he’d forgotten to snatch David’s coffee maker this time around, and he knew he was in for a _very_ long morning.

###### 

A few hours later, Max found himself in line for some sort of oatmeal-ish looking breakfast, with what he hoped were chunks of fruit of some kind poking out of it. Even after the month he’d spent eating camp food before his first ( _painful, burning, **horrible**_ ) death, he still had yet to get used to it. After having a scoop plopped onto his tray by the Quartermaster, he turned and scanned the mess hall for Harrison. The magic kid was sitting at a table by the door, poking suspiciously at his tray, and Max made a beeline straight for him.

As he reached the table, Harrison wiggled his fingers at his breakfast of goop, and with a small flash of light, it changed into a bowl of cereal, complete with a half-pint carton of milk. Max slammed his tray down across from the brunet and pointed at the bowl. “That! How the shit did you do that!”

Harrison smiled, pushing the spout of his milk open and pouring some over his muesli. “Why, it’s magic, my friend! Max, right?”

Max gave a curt nod. “Yeah. Magic. I get _that_ much, Harrison. How did you _do it_ , though. Where does your magic come from? What’s the extent of your powers? Could you, say, trap another kid in some kind of parallel dimension where time loops over and over with no real meaning or regard for what that could do to someone’s brain, given enough... _time_.”

Harrison blinked slowly, taking a bite of cereal. “Um…” He glanced to the side, nervously. “Well...I don’t know, exactly? Geez...I sure hope not…” The boy seemed to suddenly lose all interest in his breakfast. “I...I think I need to go practice un-vanishing things, some more. We can talk later, o-okay?” He stood up quickly, walking away from the table and out of the mess hall.

Max groaned and rubbed at his face. “Well that was useful,” he grumbled, pulling Harrison’s abandoned cereal across the table and swapping the spoon for his own. As he took a bite, he heard quiet footsteps from behind, and turned to see Gwen looking down at him. “Can I help you?”

Gwen frowned. “It’s Max, right?” He nodded irritably. “Two things, Max: What did you say to magic kid, and where did you get that food from? I don’t think we’ve got any of those little milk cartons anywhere on camp grounds.”

Max took another bite of cereal, chewing slowly and holding eye contact. When it became clear he wasn’t planning on answering, Gwen rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “Whatever. I’ll just go talk to magic kid, then,” she grumbled, walking off in the direction Harrison had disappeared.

“You do that,” Max muttered into another spoonful.

###### 

Further attempts to talk to Harrison went just about as well as Max’s first try had gone. It seemed he had scared the taller boy off with his rapid-fire questions, and now Harrison was avoiding him at every turn. After the illusionist dodged him for what felt like the hundredth time in a week and a half, Max decided that maybe this wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He’d just have to find a way out of the apparent death trap that was Camp Campbell. And based on his previous attempts, going it alone just resulted in David catching him within minutes, or his skull being split open ( _don’t think about it_ ) by a pine tree. So this time around, he’d made another, albeit slightly reluctant, try at stealing the bus, now accompanied by Neil and Nikki. It was quickly foiled by David, Gwen, and the Sleepy Peak police force, though, and Max found himself spending the next few days planning another plot.

This was how he and the two closest things to ‘friends’ he had found themselves at the edge of Lake Lilac in the middle of the night.

“Alright, guys,” Max said, hands stuffed into the pocket of his hoodie. “Our first attempt out of this god-forsaken hellhole didn’t work, but tonight’s gonna be different. Because we have a secret weapon…”

A short boy emerged from the shadows, wearing an eye patch and chewing a candy cane.

“Billy Nikssilp.”

“Call me Snake,” the mildly terrifying-looking boy replied, pulling the candy from his lips.

Half an hour later, the quartet had crossed half the lake via motorboat, and Max was starting to feel just the slightest bit suspicious. Camp Campbell was well behind them, they had passed Spooky Island some time back, and now, looming before them, was what appeared to be the Wood Scouts’ camp.

“Billy,” Max started slowly. “Where are you taking us?”

Snake sniffed. “Shortcut.”

Glancing over the edge of the boat, Max gasped as he saw the Wood Scouts’ ownership printed clearly on the wood. He gasped again as Snake lunged at him, stabbing his sharpened candy cane into his back. 

Neil and Nikki fell back in fright at the sudden attack, and Snake bared down on them with a growl. He snatched the green-haired girl and held her above his head, throwing her overboard with a cry of, “No girls allowed!”

“NIKKI!” Neil screamed, diving after her.

Max leapt onto the other boy, pinning him to the floor of the boat, but was quickly thrown off and landed on his back against the motor of the boat. He cried out as the candy cane, still jammed into his back, pushed itself deeper into his skin. Snake turned and quickly crossed the boat, grabbing him by the front of his hoodie. Max screamed as the candy cane was roughly pulled out of him and tossed unceremoniously into the lake.

Fuck, getting stabbed was painful. Max let out a wet-sounding cough, and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve.

His now bloody sleeve.

Snake blinked, letting go of him, and Max fell to the floor of the boat in a lump. “Shit,” he heard the scout mutter, and the boat suddenly began to pick up speed. Max coughed again, but this time couldn’t quite find the strength to wipe at his lips. Just breathing was getting to be a little difficult, and everything was kind of black and fuzzy around the edges.

Moreso than was normal, what with it being so late and dark out, anyway.

Everything was getting fuzzier, too. And even darker. It was...getting hard to think, too, but before passing out, Max managed one final thought.

_This...fucking sucks_.

###### 

The third time Max woke up on the bus to camp, he came to a realization. Escaping camp wasn’t going to work. There were clearly some dark forces keeping him here, and maybe those same dark forces just wanted him to die if he tried to leave. Maybe just...staying put would be the way out of this. Yeah. If he just kept his cool, he could get through one terrible summer camp. Then, he could go home, back to his safely neglectful parents, and live the rest of his life without having to get into bus wrecks, or be stabbed, or _burned alive_.

The bus came to a halt, and Max stepped off into some very unexpected chaos. The kids were all running around screaming, a few huddled together in the doorway of the mess hall. Gwen was in a panicked ball under a picnic table, while David was attempting to herd as many of the campers as he could manage.

Also, the ground was shaking. This was a good sign.

Looking off at Sleepy Peak, Max’s face fell. Lava was spewing from its peak, and rocks and ash were starting to fall onto the campgrounds.

“God. Damn it.”


	3. Chapter 3

After the eruption sent Max back a whole five minutes, time seemed to simultaneously go at a breakneck and a snail’s pace. It didn’t seem to matter what Max did. If he tried to escape by climbing aboard Campbell’s helicopter, the shock of a child suddenly appearing startled the pilot into crashing. If he tried hitchhiking, he got hit by a car. Twice. If he hung around camp, they were attacked by bears. Or a plague of locusts. Or the damn platypus got him. Even if nothing else cut his time short, the volcano seemed to be pretty consistent in going off by the end of the month. He’d choked on ash, had his skull bashed in by falling rocks, been trampled by the other campers as they tried to escape the debris and lava, and even been trapped in the mess hall as the entire camp went up in flames around him.

Before he knew it, Max had lost count of how many times he had died. And that? That really, _really_ sucked. He hated time loop movies for this exact reason: How could someone get used to death? To being killed in ever-more-painful ways (although nothing had anything on the whole _**boiling in lava**_ thing just yet), to waking up in the same spot again and again, to knowing exactly what was going to to happen next, every day, over and over _again_. And yet...he was. It had become the new normal, and he had yet to see the end of June even once.

But this time? This time, Max just...didn’t want to do anything. He didn’t want to try and escape. He didn’t want to try and make the best of the summer, however long it lasted. He just wanted to lay in his cot, staring at nothing and waiting to die.

And that’s how he ended up here now, lying in bed, with David hovering nearby worriedly. “Are you sure you’re all right, Max? I can stay here with you today; Gwen will be more than okay with the others for an afternoon.”

Max didn’t reply immediately, instead rolling away from the redhead. “I’m fine, David.”

David sighed, patting the boy on the shoulder. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about being homesick, you know. It happens to lots of kids.”

“’m not homesick,” Max muttered into his pillow. But of course that’s what David thought; he’d been here less than a week yet this loop, and barely left his tent at all. 

David smiled a little, letting his hand rest on Max’s shoulder for another moment before pulling it back and standing up. “Well, normally I’d say the best cure for homesickness, even if you’re not, is to get out and have some fun, but it really doesn’t seem like you’re up for any camp activities right now. I’ll come check on you around lunchtime?”

Max just burrowed further down into his cot.

“Lunchtime, then.” David left the tent in a few large steps, and Max was alone. Reaching under his pillow, he pulled out a slightly ragged old teddy bear, wrapping his arms tightly around it and curling into something reminiscent of a fetal position. He sniffed a little, but _refused_ to let himself cry. He was just so...so... _tired_. Yeah. That was a good word. He was tired of summer, he was tired of the other campers, he was tired of shitty camp food, and he was _especially_ tired of dying.

Before he realized it, Max had drifted into and back out of an uneasy sleep, and the tent flaps were opening up again. This time, Gwen was the one slipping in, and Max hurriedly stuffed Mr. Honeynuts back under his pillow. It didn’t matter how miserable he felt, or that no one would remember anyway; he’d be damned before he let anyone find out he still slept with a teddy bear.

“Hey, kid,” the counselor said quietly. “You feel up for some Camp Campbell gumbo?”

Max mumbled something unintelligible.

Gwen sighed, sitting down on the edge of his cot. “Want me to just...I dunno, bring you a bowl to eat in here?”

He shrugged.

Gwen was quiet for a long moment, before snapping her fingers and grinning. “Hey, how about we go give your parents a call? Let them know you made it alright and got settled in okay?”

That finally got a reaction out of the boy. He snorted, rolling over to face Gwen. “Yeah, I’m sure _that_ would be a great idea. My parents would just _relish_ a call from their hellspawn just days after getting rid of me for three months.”

Gwen blinked in surprise at the reaction she had gotten. “Hey...” she started slowly. “This, uh...this _is _just homesickness, right? Or is this something more serious?” she asked, scooting a little closer.__

__Max finally sat up, staring down into his lap. “...I’m fine, Gwen. Just drop it, okay?” he muttered._ _

__“Well, it’d definitely help if you left your tent, Max,” the woman said with a nervous chuckle. “Some food probably wouldn’t hurt, either.”_ _

__Max’s stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. His face flushed a few shades darker, and he finally climbed off his cot. “Yeah. Fine. Whatever,” he grumbled, leaving the tent and making a beeline for the mess hall._ _

__A few minutes later, Max was sitting down with a lukewarm bowl of lumpy gumbo. He grimaced as he fought down a few mouthfuls. The stuff tasted rancid, but at least it was filling his stomach. A particularly large bite of meat started to go down sideways, and he coughed harshly to dislodge it._ _

__The food shifted in his throat, and suddenly Max couldn’t breath. _Are you **fucking serious**_?! He wheezed, slamming a fist into his stomach and desperately looking around for the counselors. David and Gwen were sitting together at a table across the mess hall, trying to explain to Space Kid that if he wanted to eat, he had to take off his helmet for at least a few minutes. Max pounded on the table, trying to get _someone’s_ attention, but everyone was focused on their own meals, and no one was paying him any mind._ _

__Everything was getting a disturbingly familiar fuzziness to their edges, and with no idea what else to do, Max threw his spoon across the hall, aiming for David’s stupid head. He missed, but did succeed in getting the redhead’s attention. David looked over at him curiously, and to his credit, he put two and two together almost immediately, and started leaping over tables and campers in a desperate attempt to reach him._ _

__Max slumped over the table just before David grabbed him around the middle and started to apply the Heimlich maneuver. He could hear the other campers gasping and screaming, presumably about the child choking to death in front of them, but he was a little busy with the whole choking thing to really focus on the bedlam._ _

__As it all went dark, again, Max went limp and accepted his fate. He was just gonna have to deal with this for the rest of eternity, apparently. Nothing was going to stop it, nothing was going to save him, and nothing was going to change. It was just going to be death, death, death, until the end of time, if that ever even came for him._ _

__Suddenly, the meat shifted in his throat. He could feel a trickle of air in his lungs, and he fought the urge to suck as much in as he could. Instead, he tried his damndest to start coughing again, and after a long, terrifying moment, the lump dislodged itself and went flying across the table. Max gasped for air, tears and snot streaming down his face. David...David had just…_ _

__David wrapped his arms tightly around Max briefly before spinning him around to look him in the eye. “Max, are you okay? Oh, gosh, that...that was - are you okay?!”_ _

__Max coughed. “Yeah...uh…” He coughed again. “I...I think I am?” he half-questioned hoarsely. He patted himself down, barely believing that he had actually made it through. “Um...t-thanks, David,” he managed._ _

__The counselor sat Max back down on the table’s bench, letting out a shaky sigh and sitting next to him. He lowered his head between his knees and started muttering rapidly to himself. “Okay...he’s okay...everything’s all right...just count to ten, David...deeeep breaths…”_ _

__“I think...I’m gonna go lay back down,” Max said quietly, getting up and leaving the mess hall behind. He had some thinking to do._ _

###### 

__By the time night fell, Max was no closer to figuring out what to do next than he had been after his disastrous lunch. He’d decided to try and get some early sleep, but the memory of choking was still fresh in his mind. Twice, he’d nearly drifted off when the phantom feeling of fighting for air jerked him back awake. He buried his head under his pillow with a tired groan, and laid there for a time. He had finally almost fallen asleep when the sudden sound of footsteps and quiet muttering outside his tent caught his attention and dragged him awake again. Grumbling, he slipped off his cot and stuck his head out the tent flaps._ _

__Standing a few feet away, and staring directly at his tent, was the Quartermaster. _God_ , that guy was creepy. “What d’you want?” Max asked, exiting his fabric domicile._ _

__The old man was quiet for a long, long moment. Max was about to give up on an answer and go back to bed when the Quartermaster finally spoke. “The dark forces have you in their grip, child. End times’re comin’.”_ _

__Max blinked. “...What?” he asked, staring at the man in confusion. “You want to, I dunno... _expand_ on that a lit-”_ _

__“The dark forces have bid their time for some fifteen years; the seal has been weakened with the blood of an innocent and is about to break,” the Quartermaster continued, seeming to simultaneously be addressing Max directly and ignoring him entirely. “So it was written that a child would arrive, a child who would experience great misfortune and pain, to rewrite the past and repair the seal with the help of one whose powers transcend space and time itself. The island is the key. Find the boy for whom time moves not.”_ _

__Max’s jaw slowly dropped the more the Quartermaster said, until it was comically low to the ground. “Are. You. _Serious_ right now.”_ _

__The Quartermaster snorted loudly, rubbing at his nose briefly before turning and disappearing into the shadows of the trees._ _

__“Hey wait!” Max yelled, following after him. “Come back here! _Tell me what’s going on_!”_ _

__The boy made his way through the brush, listening for any sign of the old man, but he had vanished without a trace. A little thing like ‘having no idea where he was going’, and ‘barely being able to see’ wasn’t enough to stop Max’s hunt, though, and he kept rushing through the trees until suddenly, the ground dropped out below him._ _

__Max rolled down the hill at a breakneck pace, stopping only when he rolled into the lake. Trudging out of the water, he coughed several times, spitting water and even a small fish out onto the ground. He squeezed the wetness from his hair and angrily kicked the pier. He was going to get to the bottom of this, and the Quartermaster was going to get him that much closer to the answer. He was sure of it._ _


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all the supportive comments, everyone! I really appreciate them!

The next day started bright and early for Max. David and Gwen had decided the kids should all go for a hike after breakfast, and Max decided to take advantage of the situation to determine just what David could manage. If the counselor could come between Max and death one time, could he do it twice? Three times? Maybe even more than that? If he knew how far he could push David’s limits, he could use that to his advantage. Maybe he could even extend the lengths of his loops if he kept David nearby, as horrible as the thought of hanging around the overly cheerful man was.

Twenty minutes into the hike, Max found his first opportunity to test David. They had stopped near a tree to examine and identify a small group of mushrooms sprouting from the forest floor, and while most were a plain, boring shade of brown, one in particular caught Max’s eye. It was bright red, covered in small white spots, and let off a faint but pungent odor. The boy reached out and picked it from the ground, examining it carefully. The thing was clearly poisonous, that much was obvious, but was it deadly poisonous, or just enough to make him sick? There was only one way to find out, and Max took a deep breath as he brought it to his lips.

Suddenly, a hand was slapping itself over his mouth, and deft fingers plucked the mushroom from his hand. “Hold it right there, kiddo!” David said, a note of quiet fear in his voice. “Nature safety 101: Never eat strange plants!”

Max mumbled an agreement behind David’s hand, and the group started to walk again.

About ten minutes later, Nerris stopped to investigate a small hole in the ground, or as she called it, an ‘elf chimney’, and Max took advantage of the distraction to scramble up a nearby tree and launch himself headfirst towards the ground. David dove under him just in time, catching him right before he split his skull open on a large, sharp rock. “Okay, Max,” the redhead said with a nervous chuckle. “Let’s try being a little more careful, all right? You’re having a lot of close calls lately!”

Before Max could say anything in response, Nerris’ screaming caught both of their attention. Looking over at the girl, they saw a large snake emerging from the hole she’d begun poking with a stick, rearing its head back and baring a pair of frighteningly large fangs. Gwen scooped Nerris up, swiftly backing away from the snake and yelling for all the other campers to move away as well. Of course, Max saw this as an invitation to test David again, and he quickly bolted straight towards the serpent. “ _Max_!” David yelled, grabbing a large branch from the ground and running after him. Just as Max reached the reptile, David caught up to him, sweeping him up in one arm and using his branch to lift and throw the snake in one swift movement. It landed some ten feet away, quickly deciding that they were more trouble than they were worth and slithering away.

David took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, and then exhaled through his nose. He plastered on a slightly strained smile as he turned to face the kids. “So, maybe now is a good time to remember: Never run up to strange animals in the woods, campers!” His gaze flashed to Max for just a second.

Only five more minutes managed to pass without incident, before the group had to pause to retie everyone’s shoes after Nurf somehow managed to quickly and quietly knot them all together into a single, tangled mass. Gwen wriggled out of her boots and walked amongst the children, helping each camper get their own shoes off for easier removal of the knots. David tried to make the best of the situation as he fought the shoelaces, complimenting Nurf on his skill and wondering aloud if they should let him lead the group on next week’s knot-tying course.

After Gwen helped Max out of his sneakers, he leaned against the tree they were under, looking up into the branches and catching sight of a beehive. He swallowed heavily at the thought of being stung; bee venom was **not** something that his immune system was particularly fond of. He’d only ever been stung once before in his life, and that day had ended in a trip to the emergency room. It wasn’t one of his fonder memories.

Looking from the hive to David and back again, Max wondered if his parents had remembered to note his allergy when they filled out his camp paperwork. He had an idea for a final test of what David could do, but it would only work if he was aware of the danger in the first place.

“Hey, look! Bees!” Space Kid suddenly yelled, pointing into the tree with a grin. “Do you think they’ll share their honey, David?”

David looked up in surprise at Space Kid’s words, and turned pale as he saw the insects buzzing near Max’s head. That was enough of a confirmation for Max, and he leaned down to pick up a medium-sized rock from the ground, tossing it in the air and catching it as it came back down. “Max, hold still,” the counselor said slowly, standing up and holding his hands out in front of himself. “Gwen, did you bring his epipen?”

Gwen looked up from where she was helping Nerris with her shoes. “I thought you had the first aid kit,” she replied, looking nervously at the rock in Max’s hand. “Max, don’t-”

She spoke up a second too late, as the rock flew from Max’s grip and struck home. It smacked directly into the hive, knocking it to the ground and unleashing a horde of furious bees into the air. David shrieked and dove for the boy, wrapping himself around Max like a security blanket.

Max closed his eyes, trying to ignore the screams coming from the rest of the campers as David was surely being swarmed by the bees. This was good. This was _progress_. He was finding David’s limits, extending the time he could survive for, and he _definitely_ didn’t have a heavy, guilty feeling in the bottom of his stomach.

After what felt like an eternity, the sound of the bees stopped. He heard Gwen’s voice, and felt her shaking David. The counselor’s arms slid off of Max, and a little light streamed in, hitting him in the eyes. “David, _please_ tell me you’re not dead!”

David coughed a little, slowly unraveling himself from around Max. “I’m...I’m okay, Gwen. Ow...lot of stings, but I’ll be fine.” He flinched as his stung skin rubbed against his clothes, looking down at the boy. “What about you, Max?” he asked, leaning back on his heels. “Did any of them get you?”

Max shook his head, not quite able to make eye contact with the older man. “No, David. I’m fine. ...Thanks,” he added quietly, after a moment.

Gwen sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Okay, kids, I think it’s time we got back to camp. I should help David get some ointment on his stings or something, and the Quartermaster can probably whip up some kind of snack for you guys.” She made quick work fixing the remaining campers’ shoelaces for them, and the group began slowly making their way back to the campgrounds.

After the kids were dropped off at the mess hall, Gwen and David headed for the counselors’ cabin. Max paused for a minute before making a beeline after them. When he reached the cabin, he stopped, pressing himself up against the wall. Quiet voices were coming from the cracked window, and he listened intently.

“David, I really think there might be something wrong here,” Gwen said softly. Max could hear David inhale sharply as something must have rubbed against a sting the wrong way, and he insisted that Gwen was mistaken about whatever they had begun to talk about. “I’m serious, David!” she insisted. “He doesn’t leave his tent for almost a week, and then when he does, he _immediately_ almost died choking on that stupid gumbo!”

“That was an accident, Gwen!” David replied. Max risked peering through the window to see what was going on better, and watched as Gwen rubbed some sort of cream into the man’s now shirtless back.

Gwen stopped and took a step back, looking David over as if to see if she had missed any spots. “So how about today? First he tries to eat a _clearly_ poison mushroom, he dives out of a tree, he charges down a _snake_ , he _harassed_ a fucking _hive_ of _bees_ when he _knows_ he’s deathly allergic to bee venom?!” She shook her head, sinking into a wooden chair. “The kid has some kind of death wish, David, and I do _not_ need a psych major to recognize it! We should call his parents, find out if this is normal behavior for him.”

Max barely managed to hold back a snort at that. A death wish? Seriously? Death was the _last_ thing he wanted, and he couldn’t even tell anyone about it!

“Gwen, I really don’t think it’s that serious,” David continued, pulling his shirt back on. “So he’s had a rough couple of days-”

“More like twelve hours.”

“Okay, fine, _a_ rough day. So hiking isn’t his forte. He’s a little too curious for his own good! That doesn’t make him suicidal, Gwen!”

Gwen sighed, rubbing at her forehead. “That’s not what I’m saying, David,” she said quietly. “He’s clearly getting something from having you rescue him. He had an accident yesterday, you saved him from it, and now he’s spent all morning goading you into doing it again, and again, and _again_.”

Max shook his head a little, creeping away from the cabin. He’d heard enough, and he slowly made his way back to the mess hall. As he walked, suddenly the ground started to shake with a familiar rumbling. Max sighed, pinching his brow, and cast a tired gaze up to Sleepy Peak’s smoking cap. “Alright. Let’s get it over with,” he muttered, sitting down under a tree and waiting for the eruption to take the camp out.


End file.
